Lear crisis, there is a Chinese-Italian plan for the Grugliasco factory

Coming forward to take over the historic Lear plant in Grugliasco is an entrepreneur of Chinese origin, but in Italy for three generations, the Italo-Chinese group DTB Auto and a newco to be called Fipa - which stands for Fabbrica italiana produzione automobili. This is what emerged at the Mimit table held yesterday in Rome. The news of a potential investor had already emerged a few months ago, after an industrial crisis that lasted years and was linked to the end of the contract to supply seats for Maserati, the flagship factory on the outskirts of Turin. The operation, which will have to go through an initial trade union assessment in the coming weeks to reach a binding acquisition agreement, aims to create a pole in Italy to assemble Desner-branded electric quadricycles, already distributed in Italy. The proposal on the table concerns 200-250 employees of the 370 still working for Lear; the objective would be to conclude the union agreement and negotiation phase by the end of the year and then start industrial activities, starting in January. In the plan of the company, born out of the collaboration between DTB Auto, Gruppo Fassina and Gan Tou, there is that of assembling the cars with components and supplies imported from China and then assessing, later on, how to start potential collaborations with companies in the Italian automotive supply chain.

The Newco interested in taking over the Lear plant estimates investments of up to EUR 100 million and aims to assemble up to 20,000 cars at the Grugliasco site. The models indicated in the plan are two different types of quadricycles, L6 and L7. The agreement, which is non-binding for the time being, thus aims at the reindustrialisation of the Grugliasco plant and was hailed by the Minister for Enterprise and Made in Italy, Adolfo Urso, as 'a project that fits fully into our strategy of reindustrialisation and strengthening of the automotive supply chain, which is especially important in a phase of great transformation of the sector'.

Starting next week, a cycle of meetings will begin at the territorial level with trade unions and local institutions, while the next appointment at Mimit has been set for 9 October. "This industrial project naturally represents a hope for the Lear workers,' Fiom, Fime and Uilm wrote in a note, 'for which, as unions, we are ready to begin a close confrontation, but we believe it is also necessary to proceed with caution, due to the difficulties inherent in all reindustrialisations and the distance between the need for workers declared by FIPA and the current Lear workforce to be relocated, amounting to 380 people.

The workers' representatives ask the ministry to verify the financial and market strength of the investor partners. "With Lear, on the other hand, we are ready to undertake a confrontation on what can remain in the Turin area, on the opening of a procedure of voluntary incentive exits," while at a later stage we will enter into the merits to discuss the conditions of passage, with the maximum possible protections, salaries and regulations, reiterate the metalworkers. "This result is the fruit of incessant, discreet and silent work, coordinated and conducted by the Ministry of Enterprise and Made in Italy, which has seen the continuous collaboration of the Piedmont Region, the Ministry of Labour and the trade unions," emphasises Piedmont's councillor for labour, Elena Chiorino, who a few days ago presented the first results of a training and professional retraining project carried out with Agenzia Piemonte Lavoro, Manpower, Scuola Camerana and Microtecnica, a company of the Safran Group, to relocate a dozen workers from the automotive sector to the aerospace sector